Guardians of the Stars

Frigates

Frigates are the first step up from Fighters, Shuttles, or Corvettes among the ‘true’ capital ships and some truly large shuttles may in fact be the same general size. However unlike smaller craft they have dedicated facilities to house and provide a relatively comfortable environment for their crew over extended periods of time. They also have small crews typically numbering in the dozens (2 to 5 dozen is typical). While not an option for all Frigates, some Frigates are also capable of landing on planets making them some of the largest landing capable spacecraft.

Functionally Frigates serve the same general functions as Corvettes: patrolling solar systems, scouting, and providing fire support in fleet actions. Unlike Corvettes however they often perform these tasks alone and are almost always FTL capable. They are often called the workhorses of the military and perform a wide range of basic tasks to free up bigger vessels for other duties outside their purview.

A Frigate is often the first FTL command for command officer in a space navy and the officer in question could have the rank as low as Lieutenant Commander depending on service. Even if their rank otherwise is not ‘captain’, while in command of one of these vessels they will be called ‘captain’.

Frigates are commonly the largest combat focused craft pirates and mercenaries possess.